DIY Medicine From YouTube Videos

One of the positive things about the recession era is that it’s inspiring people to get creative — for instance, by performing their own minor surgeries, using how-to videos from YouTube. The Globe and Mail reports:

Before, doctors worried about patients who self-diagnosed after doing Internet research on questionable medical websites. But the social Web has given birth to a new beast: users who document their DIY medical procedures on camera and share the videos on YouTube.

Doug Southern would have preferred to see a doctor, but bad timing meant he was without health insurance. He was laid off from his job a short while before a three-year-old baseball-sized cyst on his back became infected.

When his brother-in-law, a family practitioner, and his sister came to visit him in Tuscaloosa, Ala., he decided to put down a towel and pillow on his kitchen floor and turn it into a makeshift operating room so his cyst could be taken out “Alabama style.”

The graphic, seven-minute YouTube video is punctuated with squeals of delight and revulsion from Mr. Southern’s sister (the camerawoman) and commentary from the doctor (“Now you see how that’s a little bit cheesy there? That’s some of the cyst stuff comin’ out.”).

His video was posted mostly for entertainment (“You don’t want to see it, but once you see it happening, you can’t take your eyes off it,” he says) but it was uploaded to the “Education” category of YouTube.

I once came across an article on how to give yourself an abortion, using various “natural and therefore safe” herbs. If I remember right you're basically poisoning yourself for a couple weeks until it induces a miscarriage.

tonyviner

It's no different than eating McDonald's while being pregnant. More people should look into these things.

Aguycalledgerald

ergot, morning glories etc.

http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

Pennyroyal.

My wife wonders why I insist on serving mint tea with every meal…

Synapse

Pshh People have done this kind of stuff for years. Usually only something as innocuous as removing a blister/wart/mole though.